A couple of months ago I wrote a piece asking where all the big corals went. Well on my recent speaking trip to England, I found them. In the tank of my friend Martin Lakin I was amazed to see…
Falling in Love With the Hobby Again
There are countless clichés about love and falling in love and most of them are clichés because they are true. My two favorites are ‘it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ and…
Jumpstarting a reef tank after a long break
With Labor Day fast approaching, vacations winding down and the kids going back to school, it’s a sure sign that the end of summer is upon us. And with Fall and the colder weather, many of us start spending more time with…
The Hottest Corals of 2006
Not to make you feel old, but ten years ago was when Nintendo brought out the Wii, and Pluto was still a planet. Yeah I can’t believe they did that to Mickey Mouse’s dog either. The first one billionth song was…
The Hottest Corals of 1996
1996 was an interesting year for a number of reasons as it was the year that Dolly the sheep was cloned, DVDs were launched and my Steelers lost to the dreaded Cowboys. There were no digital cameras, nor smartphones, and…
Nano Bubbles in the Reef Aquarium
As Don Ho used to sing:” Tiny bubbles, in the wine, make me happy, make me feel fine”. However, this refrain does not seem to be the mood on the reef aquarium side of the hobby, as judging from the heated discussions and…
Dads and Tanks
The restaurants aren’t jam packed with patrons, there is no breakfast in bed and the cards are more funny than sentimental. But the grill is on, it’s Open weekend, and it’s the start of summer, so yes it is Father’s…
How to Reduce the Learning Curve of Keeping a Saltwater Aquarium
Since this hobby’s inception the dissemination of information has been one of the hallmarks of why we have gotten successful. But now that there is so much information, I sometimes question how it is we learn what works, especially when as…
The Coral Name Game
It’s all in the name. The name says it all. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. We have all heard countless phrases that extol the importance of a name. Last names like Miller or Baker referred…
Where have the large coral colonies gone?
Recently I came across a box of slides and began looking at the shots of the many tanks I had seen over the years and several things stood out. I have been fortunate to see a lot of tanks and…
